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All Good Americans Should Root For Clippers

The triumph here cannot resonate loudly and symbolically enough: A team comprised mostly of African-American men, in a league owned and operated almost entirely by white people, survived the racist bluster of a white, Jewish, 80-year-old owner and all the resulting mayhem to win a seven-game playoff series. They had to deal with painful questions from loved ones, tears from co-workers, non-stop intrusions by media people. They had to decide how to protest properly, whether to take the historic step of boycotting and forfeiting a postseason game. Through it all, they had to conserve enough mental and physical energy to vanquish a heated opponent, the Golden State Warriors, that still wanted to fight in the hallway an hour after the final game.

And, somehow, the Clippers thrashed through the noise and intense social ramifications and conquered a unique, exhausting challenge, among the most daunting trials a sports team will face. Theyve channeled their anger into a strong, poised, unified mission, and no matter where you are, in Los Angeles or beyond, you really should be rooting for them. You support the Clippers not only because of how theyre responded to Donald Sterlings hateful rant, but because this was a ding-a-ling basketball franchise for three decades. To see the LOS ANGELES CLIPPERS become American trail blazers over an owners ignorance is something you never expected and, thus, must be celebrated until the good vibes expire.

How did you not smile when Doc Rivers who barely slept for a week as he counseled his wounded players, calmed a simmering rage in Los Angeles,

served as a vital spokesman for Black America and the NBA throughout the crisis, spoke to shaken employees at the teams downtown offices, helped ease his own familys pain and, oh yes, coached his team through a draining series became a one-man pep rally in the final seconds of Game 7? He raised his arms, shouted into the stands, stormed down the sideline, high-fives fans, hugged his players and reminded one and all exactly what this group had overcome the previous eight days and nights.

``Our guys fought through the adversity. They went through it. It drained them, and they found enough energy to win, RIvers said. ``I just thought this team really needed the game. I just thought with all this stuff, this team just needed a win. My excitement was not for me at all, it was for everybody. I wanted the fans to get excited. They were almost sitting there in shock, and I just wanted them to get excited and exhale for a second, because all we have is a second.

And the Clippers may not have much more than a second, with continuing survival made difficult by two immediate games in Oklahoma City against the leagues most valuable player, Kevin Durant, and a Thunder team that pushed past its own first-round issues against Memphis. But then, its possible the Sterling scandal, while beginning to die down now that V. Stiviano has made more money off ABC and Barbara Walters, will continue to fuel the Clippers. If they can get through a week of insanity and still win a playoff series, cant they get through anything?

``There's not a team that has ever gone through this," said Blake Griffin, maturing as we speak from a maniacal dunker and shtick pitchman into a thoughful 25-year-old. ``I remember that Saturday morning, when everything had hit, you could see certain players that were really emotionally about the situation. This was the first day, and it got bigger. At the point when we had the meeting, it was a huge thing, but it just grew and grew and grew with each day and each hour, honestly, and it just wore on guys. We tried to put it off to the side, but it's impossible."

Yet, much of it is over now. The league has banned Sterling for life and quickly launched proceedings to force his ouster as owner, announcing it will appoint a chief executive officer to oversee the team. Sterling is said to be ensconced in the penthouse of one of his Beverly Hills buildings, finally breaking his silence with this regrettable comment to something called DuJour.com: ``I wish I had just paid her off. Stiviano claims in one breath in the Walters interview that Sterling is not a racist, saying, ``No, I dont believe it in my heart. I think Mr. Sterling is from a different generation than I am. I think he was brought up to believe these things segregation, whites and blacks. But through his actions hes shown that hes not a racist. Hes shown to be a very generous and kind man. Then, in the next breath, she says Sterling has gone off on similar racist ramblings. Yes, Sterling is expected to summon his battalion of lawyers and drag the NBA through court for weeks, months and hopefully not years. But the big, bad man has been stripped of his power and dignity.

The Clippers still have theirs. They also have covered up the championship banners of the Lakers inside Staples Center another deed of Rivers with plans of hoisting one of their own. Can they in June? With Oklahoma City, San Antonio and Miami possibly awaiting? Are you going to tell them they cant?

Chris Paul, who had a much larger burden as president of the players union, easily could have checked out of the series. In a career of unusual circumstances Hurricane Katrina early in his New Orleans career, two years in a temporary Oklahoma City home, a trade to the Lakers voided by commissioner David Stern, a soon-after trade to the Clippers approved by Stern the Sterling affair truly blew him away. His body was a wreck, with hamstring and thumb injuries, and he felt overwhelmed by it all.

Instead, he also persevered. ``Our team is very tight, and we have a team group text where it's just our entire team," Paul said. ``Last night, guys were texting that this can't be over. It's not time for this to be over. We just felt in the timeouts and at halftime (of Game 7), we just knew it wasn't time for our season to be over.

``It's going to sound crazy, but it was all about tonight. Everything else was in the past. We didn't dwell on all that stuff, and not to diminish how serious everything has been in the past week or so. It was all about basketball.

Afterward, it also was about the Warriors engaging Paul and the Clippers in hallway trash talk. According to USA Today, the police were called in. But no punches were thrown, and given the magnitude of whay theyd endured, it was a mere kerfuffle. Im not going to described the Clippers as Americas Team, knowing the term to be trite and silly, but they certainly are a cause that America should embrace and admire.

My only concern, should they win a title, is the ogre finagling a ring out of it. All Sterling has to do is pay someone off, right? That was a joke, Doc.